First full size hat

[Hayes Rutherford]

I opened my big mouth and told my birch supplier I could make him a full size cowboy hat. I have made quite a few ornamental mini hats and thought all it takes is a big chunk of wood, right? A few days ago I thought today is the day so I started in making the re-chuck that a stack of mdf was previously glued up for. Then it was bearings, then lamp parts then, a new tool rest. Those items shot the whole day and that evening I re visited plenty of on line tutorials on the basics of wood hat making.

Day two: I started by cutting a blank from a 17" diameter birch log, prepped it for the lathe and turned the hat. The goal was to make a hat size 8-1/8 so from what I picked up on line I added 9/16" and turned the diameter at the band to 8-11/16". Its in the bender now and has taken quite a bit of shape but I don't expect to get a lot more from this piece of birch that was dying and had some bug holes. The only problem I had was the dark birch didn't let light through until I got to the sap wood at the dome, and I had to add some temporary strips of foam to the lighted re-chuck because the hat size was slightly too big for the chuck. The chuck as built should work fine for anything up to size 8.

If I can be of help to anyone who wants to undertake this type of project, just let me know. I don't plan to get seriously into hat turning, but it is fun and I plan to do at least a couple more now that I have some of the essentials like the lighted re chuck and a bending jig. I should have a finished pic in a week or so.

[Brian Libby]

Great looking hat !
I attended an all day demo of Johannes Michelsen a couple of years ago, and it is certainly a process he made look easy !!

[Jim Burr]

I hope you understand Hayes...there are a handfull of people that can do that and you may have just become a lemming leader! Amazing job sir!!! That will be sure to have a gallery spot!

[Scott Hackler]

Pretty cool. I have the instructions for the bender and light chuck set up but haven't tried to get set up to try a full sized hat yet. Looks like you did a good job of it. be sure and show us a picture of the finished product.

[David E Keller]

There's a project on my bucket list! Great job on the hat! Scott(or anyone else), can you send me those plans for the bender and the light chuck? I can't wait to see it finished, Hayes!

[Dan Forman]

The hat looks great. Wish I could see it before it's claimed. Oh well, maybe another?

Dan

[Baxter Smith]

Looks great Hayes! I don't know anything about doing one, but someday I would like to give it a shot! Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Michelle Rich]

good golly, that's impressive!

[Steve Schlumpf]

That's pretty cool! Looking forward to seeing it once finished!

[Robert McGowen]

Quite a project, Hayes. It amazes me how many shavings hit the floor to give a finished project like this.

[Allan Ferguson]

That is some project. Probably more than I want to tackle.

[Tim Rinehart]

Lookin good Hayes, can't wait to see finished. I've gone thru the process about 4 times now, really only one that I liked, and I blew thru part of top, but managed to somewhat salvage it. Did one recently, but miscalculated height of hat, so it's about an inch short. It had a big inclusion in rim I actually was able to save, but I haven't been motivated to finish sanding and finish it after coming off bending rack.
Your's is looking super with the proportions from what I see.

[charlie knighton]

bravo, very nice

[Roland Martin]

Looking great Hayes:eek: Can't wait to see it completed.

[Kathy Marshall]

Very cool! That's going on my "one of these days" list, probably start off with a mini hat. Sure looks like fun!

[Hayes Rutherford]

So far the hat has taken on a little more bend and tonight I plan to place a light bulb under it. On one of the tutorials I saw it looked like the end grain front and back was taped, but I didn't have any and ran some shrink wrap around the perimeter thinking it would help hold moisture in the rim. The shrink wrap has all been cut loose and I'm putting a light bulb under it tonight. Tomorrow I plan to take it out and so some hand sanding(oh no), maybe lacquer sanding sealer first, then some cheap rattle can lacquer. Maybe Tim or Brian know what is best. I read Chris Ramsey uses something like 20 coats of lacquer. I'm giving it away to someone who probably won't wear it so "adequate" would be in order.

Thanks for the interest and I'll post the end result regardless of how it turns out.

So far I've been lucky and the process has been fun.